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Polish President Karol Navrocki is scheduled to visit Hungary on Wednesday, but the president will not hold talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as previously announced.
“President K. Navrocki has decided to limit the program of his visit to Hungary to the Visegrad Group summit in Ostjihom,” Marcin Przydaci, head of the Presidential Office for International Policy, wrote in X.
The reason, the presidential palace officially stated, was Orbán’s visit to Moscow, which the Hungarian prime minister said was to secure guarantees for long-term energy supplies from Russia.
“Russian energy will be the basis of Hungary’s energy supply now and in the future,” Orbán asserted.
“In connection with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow and in its context, President K. Navrocki has decided to limit the program of his visit to Hungary, referring in his policy to the legacy of President Lech Kaczyński, who emphasized that European security also depends on united action in the energy sector,” President Przydań said in a statement.
Prime Minister Orbán had said before his visit that he would seek additional oil and gas supplies from Moscow after Hungary received an indefinite exemption from U.S. sanctions on its heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas. This contradicts the EU’s policy to limit Russian energy imports until 2027.
Hungary maintains that energy imports from Russia are essential for economic survival. President Orbán has repeatedly insisted that switching to alternative fossil fuel sources would immediately cause economic collapse.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Orban’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war in a speech at the Kremlin.
Originally scheduled meeting between Navrocki and Orbán criticized by Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday.
“It’s a deadly combination,” Tusk wrote of X, “visiting Mr. Orbán, President Putin and Navrokki Orban. Negotiations over the Vitkov plan are in turmoil, and Kiev is in the midst of a political crisis.”
